Identifying Wheel-Thrown Vases in Middle Minoan Crete? Preliminary Analysis of Experimental Replicas of Plain Handleless Conical Cups from Protopalatial Phaistos

pottery is produced through the use of a combination of coil-building and the wheel, i.e., wheelcoiling. Experimental work conducted on pottery from Minoan sites of Northern and Eastern Crete
(e.g., Knossos, Myrtos Pyrgos, Palaikastro) has indeed determined that Minoan potters did not develop
the skills required to adopt the wheel-throwing technique. However, my recent technological study
of Protopalatial ceramic material from Middle Minoan IIA (19th century BC) deposits from the First
Palace at Phaistos, in Southern Crete, has revealed that though pottery was produced by the wheelcoiling techniques, yet other forming techniques were practised too.
In this paper I present a preliminary analysis of experimental replicas of MM IIA Phaistian plain
handleless conical cups, manufactured on the potter’s wheel using three different forming techniques:
wheel-pinching, wheel-coiling, and throwing-off-the-hump. This analysis will proffer answers to
several questions on the use of the potter’s wheel in Middle Bronze Age Crete and opens the possibility
that at MM IIA Phaistos there co-existed potters who had developed skills to employ different forming
techniques on the wheel, including possibly that of throwing-off-the-hump.